An Explosive find
by Dana Kathrine Scully
Summary: Roddy and Rita's boat the Jammy Dodger is sabotaged, plus they run into someone they didn't want to and are separated. Will they meet back up and defeat who's holding them hostage?
1. The Bomb It is not popular

FA: A valuable(and explosive)find

Rita and Roddy raced through the tunnels, trying to lose Whitey, Spike, Ladykiller, and Toad's new henchrat with an unfortunatly friendly sounding name, Keith. Rita ran ahead of Roddy and found a little alcove. She pulled Roddy into the alcove with her and put a hand over his mouth to make double sure he was silent. The four ran right past, and after they were gone Rita stuck her head out of the alcove.

"Alright, Rod. They're gone. The Jammy should be at the docks still. Then we can have a little fun and speed right past them and use the watergun. You want to do the honors?" she asked triumphantly as she jumped over a pipe. Roddy carefully stepped over it, and was not being speedy, heck no. Carefulness before speed, that was Roddy's rule. This was one thing that agitated Rita so much her tail would quiver and then suddenly it would jerk to one side and hit something. It seemed to take the agitation out of her system, and she was normal again after the pain went away.

"Well, you seem to think that the expression, 'a little fun' means teasing and antagonising Toad's henchrats. Oh, yes, antagonising some of the most dangerous rats in the sewers, oh yes that's a good lot of fun, Ri." Roddy mumbled as he tripped over a cable with an "OOMPH!" as he landed on his hands. Rita saw him fall and winced when she saw what he had used to brace his fall. She let out an, "Ooh, ouch, that's gotta hurt." as she walked back to help him up. He used this opportunity to run ahead of her and beat her to the Dodger. He got up, dusted himself off casually, smiled and took off running.

"Are you going to try to catch up with me, Rita?" he called back.

"Oi! Get your butt back here! Alright, I'm coming after you! Be warned! I can run!" she yelled after him. She took off running and caught up to him in no time. He tripped over a cable, again, and she fell over him. The two tumbled over each other until Roddy was sitting by Rita with an arm over her midsection. The two blushed and sat up. They brushed themselves off and walked the few yards to the Jammy Dodger II. Rita jumped onboard and started up the engine, but it would not start. There was something jammed in it.

"Oh, yeah, absolutely great. Something stuck in the engine starter. Now THAT'S something I won't get fixed in a day. I hope it's small and easy to get out."

Rita opened the hatch to go below deck and immediatly saw the problem. There was something round, like a soccerball stuck in the main reactor valve. She let out a sigh of relief as she nonchalantly walked over to remove it. It was stuck. Rita rubbed her hands together as she readied herself to pull it out. She grabbed it, pulled with all her might and it came loose and she fell back and hit the wall below deck, rocking the boat. She turned it over in her hands and found a black fuse attached to the round thing. She knew this picture. She'd seen this movie. The girl was dumb enough to hold it until it detonated. It was a bomb from up top. She kept a thermos of water below deck in case of an emergency. she took a swig and spit it out on the burning fuse. It didn't go out.

Now what?

Will Rita stop the bomb from detonating? Give me reviews and maybe I'll tell you. Cookies for all! (tosses boxes of oreos out into the crowd)


	2. Pieces and a Hospital

Explosion and a Hospital

Rita tried to find someplace to throw the bomb, but she was below deck. She ran upstairs to the deck and yelled to Roddy,

"GET OFF THE BOAT!! THERE'S A BOMB! DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME I'LL STOP IT!" she screamed.

"Gees, how do you get yourself into these messes, Rita?!" she hissed.

She yanked the fuse out and threw it on the floor. When she did so, the bomb popped open. it was a fake!

"Oh, no..."Rita gasped. She was scrambling up the stairs as soon as she realised that the fuse was the real deal. She had shut the door and was trying to get away when it blew. The explosion threw her across the boat and she smacked into the wall. Just to make matters worse, pipe hit her in the back of the head, knocking her into unconsiousness.

Beeps. Whispers. Screens seen through peripheral vision. More beeps. Agitating beeps. Very annoying beeps. Extremely annoying beeps. Exceedingly annoying beeps. A sneese. Huh? Where'd that come in?

Rita Malone kicked back the hospital bed sheets and looked around. She was still in her british flag pants and tee shirt, but she was dizzy. A bandage stretched around her head to secure a pad of surgical gause on the back of her head. She wobbled and closed her eyes momentarily, and saw Roddy's face centering in her view.

What happened, Rodders? I felt dizzy for a minute and now your face is in my sight. Did I pass out?"

Roddy smiled that wonderful smile of his and began to explain.

"You did pass out, but you were saying something about the pulse beeps. Also, keep your hands away from your gause pad. That's a bandage to protect the wound. A pipe hit you in the back of the head and you were bleeding."

Rita nodded in agreement to what he had said. It had to have been true. She remembered the flying pipe. Something came to her mind. The Dodger! Was it in one piece?

"Roddy, is the Dodger ok? The bomb was below deck when it detonated, and I think the engine was destroyed. That's gonna be a heap of trouble in itself, but that's not going to matter if the boat's been destroyed. So, what happened to it?"

Roddy grimaced, and took another deep breath, and sneezed again. "Sorry, This smell and the disinfectant mixed must combine into something I'm allergic to. I remember Tabitha putting some stuff into my cage and I was so allergic to it that my throat was swollen and-" Rita intercepted his story.

"Roddy, I asked you about the boat, not why you were sneezing, not tell me or I'm gonna bug you until you tell me, and you know I'm good at that." she grinned mischeiviously, folding her arms across her chest and cocking her head.

Roddy mumbled something like, "She is SOO good at threats..."

Finally he gave up and spoke. "The bomb destroyed the Dodger. Little pieces of the second explosion are floating around the accident site. Sanitation workers are trying to clean it all up."

Rita cosed her eyes and bowed her head. ANOTHER ship gone. The first Dodger, she lost it due to Le Frog, and now the second Dodger, sabotaged into nothing. What gives?

"Well, that's that, and I can't fix it. At least I wasn't killed. I'm here, now, with you listening to me babble about nothing..." Rita's words faded into silence. "Still, I might have lost the Dodger, but I still have you." Rita put her right hand on Roddy's cheek and and smiled affectionately. He put his hand over hers and matched her expression.

Rita got up and brushed off her pants, they were covered in dust. She then walked to the door to leave. Roddy told her something.

"Hold on a second, Ri. The doctor hasn't said if you can go yet."

The doctor walked in and saw Rita standing up. "She's been awake for how long?"

Roddy replied, "About thirty minutes. She passed out after the first 15 seconds, but after that she's ben normal. Is she free to go yet?"

The doctor flipped a few pages and found her name on a list. "Yes, she's free to go. We will supply you two with a new boat until you come up with a new one, free of charge. You ok with that?"

Rita was gathering her hair back into a ponytail carefully, and said, "Rodders, let's get out of here before the smell gets me sick. Nothing sickens me more than the smell of a hospital."

Roddy signed a paper for the boat and was pulled out of the room by Rita, whose strength and determination was not himdered by a bandage on the back of her head. her face was becoming sicker looking by the minute, and the air outside, (which normally stank) retuned her facial color to the norm.

"Ugh, hospitals actually scare me. Last time I was in a hospital, it was up top, and I happened to be in a heating vent. It was in the wall, in the same room where a surgery took place. I saw the gorey sight and passed out. Luckily when I awoke, the air had pushed me to the exit."

Roddy thought of Rita being scared. Was that possible? Rita and scared didn't belong in the same sentence. As they found the boat they were lended, roddy sat on the side of the boat, careful not to fall out. This boat did not have a crane like the Dodger. Was Rita capable of being scared? Of couse she was. Still, he couldn't believe it. He couldn't help but imagine her being scared.


	3. A kiss in the middle of danger

Rita guided the boat through Piccadilly with great difficulty. The boat the hospital rented for them was nothing like the Jammy, and that was the only boat she had driven before. If they ran into someone they didn't want to, like Spike and Whitey, they were easy prey.

Roddy fell back into the boat as Rita bumped the boat against a curb. She was having an extremely hard time steering. Was it because she was sick? No, was she scared? She was not easily scared, but once something shook her ground, she was not easily stabilized. She was scared, and he didn't know how to steady her out.

A slug began to sing a song. _A little bit of this, a little bit of that, it started with a kiss, now we're up to bat._

_A little bit of laughs, a little bit of pain, I'm telling you my babe, it's all in the game of love._ The song was by Michelle Branch.

Roddy stuck his tonge out at the slug and insulted it, and with a huff, the little guy was gone. So he thought. On the side of the boat, the slug was grinning an evil, plotting grin.

Rita swerved just in time to miss a smaller boat, and she quickly parked. Was she shaking? She was! Had the smell awakened her sense of fear? She walked to the edge of the cockpit and sat down. She put her head in her hands. Could it be? One sight for about five seconds petrefied her, and now she was terrified now that she smelled the same smell and heard one yelp from the surgery ward? Roddy saw her with her head in her hands and walked over. He knelt in front of her and lifted her head up to look her in the eyes.

"Ri, is there something wrong? Maybe you should let me drive. I'm better at driving than you right now."

Rita nodded and sat at the back of the boat. She pulled out an MP3 player and listened to Michelle Branch's All you ever wanted and sang along.

"If you want to, I can save you, I can take you, away from here.

So lonely inside, so busy out there, and all you wanted was somebody who cared."

**Ok, a note from the author. I know that both my stories have Michelle Branch songs in them. I can't help it. She's my fave singer. As a teen, I have abunch of singers I like, but she's my favorite. OK, ON WITH THE STORY!**

Rita fell asleep against the side of the boat, and awoke an hour and a half later, singing the song.

"I wanted, to be like you! I wanted, everything.

so I tried, to be like you! and I got swept away."

Roddy listened to her sing. She had a beautiful voice to match her exterior. Everything about her just screamed, "This is me, and nothing you do can change that.". Roddy liked that about her.

He noticed she was awake, and parked by a shopping complex. He walked to the back of the boat and sat down next to her.

"You ok? You've been singing that song the entire time you were asleep. You have a beautiful voice, Ri." Rita blushed a rose pink.

"Yeah, as well as ice skating, I sang a bunch of songs. I did my practices to them. I heard a song before you took over, who was that?"

At the mention of the song, the slug appeared and began singing.

"A little bit of this, a little bit of that, it started with a kiss, and we're up to bat.

A little bit of laughs, a little bit of pain, I'm telling you my babe, it's all in the game of love."

Rita looked at Roddy and smiled her flirty smile when more was sung.

"You know, me. Control, me. Console, me. Please, hold, me!"

Roddy threatened to smack the slug, and it's eyes widened in fear and it jumped off the boat. Rita laughed.

"It does, it's only the truth. The cold hard truth, Rodders. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and the next part isn't true until now." She slowly extended a hand and placed it on his cheek. She brought him closer to her, and the two's lips touched for the first time. She expected him to pull away, but he didnt. She almost didn't pull away. It was her first kiss! Her heart was beating faster than lightning was there and gone, and she was praying furiously that Roddy wouldn't feel her beating heart, and e was doing the same. He was hoping like heck that she didn't feel it. Finally the two pulled away from each other, but Rita wished the moment wouldn't end. She was in another world then. Now she was in the sewers, looking at Roddy, who was now walking back to the cockpit. She wasn't shaking anymore. She felt good. She felt like building another Jamy Dodger, and daring someone to destroy it. Little did she know that the henchrats were below deck, Whitey, Spike, Thimblenose Ted, Ladykiller, Fat Barry, and Keith(he needs a scarier name, like Boris, or something. Oh, yeah, whatch out for KEITH:))

**Chapter Four coming soon**


	4. MADE NEW

Whitey, Spike, Ladykiller, Thimblenose Ted, Fat Barry and Keith(He still needs a scarier name, oh yeah whatch out for keith!) sat in the engine room of Roddy and Rita's boat waiting for the moment. They were all squished and their patience was thinning. Whitey was getting impatient.

"Spike, when'r we gonna go and get em? My suit's gettin' wrinkled."

"Shuttup, Whitey! They're gonna hear you. Oh, ain't that romantic..."Spike replied. Through a crack in the floor, they could see Roddy kissing Rita.

"I love a happy beginning."Whitey said happily. Spike scoffed. "I like UNhappy beginnings, with lotsa violence-"Spike was cut off as the deck hatch was opened and smacked into his face. Rita was checking something! She went back up to the deck and shut the door. Spike had been squashed into the wall, and fell away fom the wall when Rita shut the door.

"Ow..." he whimpered.

"'Ow long are we gonna sit down 'ere? They're gonna be parked when we decide to storm this 'ere boat."

"Ow..."was all Spike said.

Up on the deck, Rita leaned back and relaxed. She was recovered from her hospital episode, and was now fully recovered. She felt better for whatever reason after Roddy kissed her, and she felt as if she could take on the Toad herself. No that that was abnormal for her, but she felt stronger than she had since she was fourteen, and had showed the bully at school who was tougher-and Rita was the toughest. She had smacked him and he thought he was top dog. But, gees, that lasted until sixth period on the first day of school. Rita kinda felt bad about it, now that she was friends with the guy. That was a time he remembered and she still tried to forget.

She asked Roddy to stop at the news booth, and she grabbed a paper. She was shocked at the headline, but was ticked at the same time.

BOAT SABOTAGED: JAMMY DODGER MARK II DESTROYED BY FUSE BOMB

Rita snarled as she began to read the article. It said they had interviewed her! Liars.

"Worthless, unreliable, untrustworthy, double-crossing too-f-" Rita growled.

"Hey, that's my name series, Ri!" Roddy called from the front. Rita was partially amused, but it didn't show.

"Roddy, park the boat. Look at this headline, this is not good for us. Take a look."

Roddy parked the boat and walked to the back of the boat. Rita handed him the paper. His eyes widened as he read the headline. He then looked at it like it was some sort of alien. He took out a pen and circled a few things. After he finished circling, he walked off the boat and grabbed a paper from another news booth. He compared the two. The article was totally different. Something about federal problems and the sewer senate. very uninteresting and boring.

"Rita, it's a fake news paper. The stuff's not on the right paper, and look here." Roddy pointed at a fingerprint at the top of the page. "Normal papers are not prepared by hand. They're printed and folded into the wads by machines, not done by hand. Plus, the wads of paper are neatly aligned. This paper is sloppily folded. Again, No ads! In the real paper, there are ads for the cafes and real estate agnemts and clothing stores. In the fake, there are no sighns of there being ads."

Rita was amazed. How could she have missed that? It was so obvious! She looked up at Roddy and cocked her head

"I can't believe I missed that. I guess I'm not the sharp-eyed rat I used to be. A while back, when I was thirteen, I could spot a tiny bit of moss from thirty feet away! Now I can't decipher a fake newspaper! Savor this moment, Rodd. It won't happen again, I assure you." Rita warned playfully. She punched him in the shoulder softly, and then went to the hatch. She heard something. Voices! There were other rats down there! She found a crack in the floor and looked down into the engine area. She was shocked. Whitey, Spike and all the other henchrats were scrunched below deck. She carefully got up and went to Roddy.

"Roddy, we have to leave this boat, NOW." she whipered, a tinge of fear in her voice. He nodded without question and parked the boat. The two walked off casually, like they were going to go to lunch or shopping. Rita cast a glance over her shoulder as they rounded a corner and saw the henchrats climbing out of the engine area. She thought of the paper. They had heard about it being a fake, and now they were probably going to follow her and Roddy. She needed a quick makeover. She needed to be a blond, and needed to have different clothes other than her British flag pants and green top, because that was an icon for finding her. She went into a hair salon and leafed through hairstyles and colors. She would need a brownish color of blond. Her fake name, Annah Bridgerton, was called out. She got up and walked to the chair. She told the stylist what color she wanted and the style. After about an hour, the coloring was done and her style was being put into her hair. She made sure the color would wash out, and it eventually would. She thanked and paid the stylist. She walked out of the salon and saw Roddy coming. He had bought a pair of dark blue jeans and a loose tee shirt and looked totally different. He seemed shocked at her new hair color, but they swithched sides of the street and Rita found new clothes while Roddy got his hair done differently. It was a light brown, with streaks of his natural brown hair.

Rita found a tight, hot pink and black top in the juniors' department in a fancier, expensive store. She also found a tight pair of light blue jeans and hot pink and black tennis shoes. When she put on the outfit, she was stunned. Black, hot pink, and light blue jeans looked good on her. She bought the outfit but remembered something as she walked out the door. Her eyes! Only the Malones had eyes like hers. She needed differnt colored eyes. She ran into the salon and walked over to Roddy, who was paying.

"Roddy, I am going to the eye doctor. Meet me threre, ok?"

"Ok. I'll be there in a few."

Rita walked out of the salon and swiftly walked to the optical offices. She looked at the different colors of contacts she could get. She had had contacts before, and loved them. The receptionist waled over to he and asked if she needed help.

"Yes, I need a pair of contacts with the colored iris, please. I need them today, too.

The receptionist showed her the case of contacts like the kind Rita wanted, and She chose blue. She could be dressed and look like a heart breaker. She paid for the contacts and put them in. They didn't hinder her sight, so she walked to a makeup artist's shop. After she got done with that, she looked nothing like Rita Malone. She was walking back to the meeting place and met The new Roddy St. James, now known as Brian Hargerson. She walked up and smiled at him and he was very disturbed. Why was this stranger doing and who was she?

"Um, excuse me?" he asked sort of rudely.

"Annah Bridgerton, Brian Hargerson. AKA, Ri?"

Roddy's eyes widened as he saw what she had been transformed into. She had blond, straight hair with a few tiny braids, and she had blue contacts. She looked entirely different. There was absolutely no way Whitey and Spike or any of the henchrats could recognise her or Roddy, who was posing as her fiance.

Will they get away from the henchrats? Find out in the next chapter.


	5. Another Explosive development

Chapter 5

Rita Malone, alias Annah Bridgerton, and Roddy St. James, alian Brian Hargerson, walked to the boat rental shack and chose a boat. Rita had bought a plastic fake engagement ring and Roddy had bought a band of gold plastic as well. His was only missing the diamond. They found their boat and checked below deck. Roddy checked the engine area for henchrats, while Rita fired the thing up. She suddenly remembered something. Her accent! That was a dead giveaway. Malones and others related to the Malones had a strong foreign accent. Only the Malones had it. She had to try to have a British accent and not something totally different. If they knew she had a Malone accent, she and Roddy were busted. Worse than busted. Dead or beyond dead! Facing another villan taking the Toad's place was worse than facing the Toad while in a wheelchair. You'd be helpless. A rat would end up in an unearthly state-in a savage block of ice.

Rita straightened up and tried out her new accent. She was acting like she was singing opera, hand to her chest and hand extended before her. Roddy had just come up from the engine area and shot a double take. What the... Rita was not speaking with her foreign accent. He noticed movement behind him and looked behind him. The henchrats! Roddy rushed up to Rita, and thought about acting like the perfect fiance. He wrapped his arms around her midsection and she gasped.

"Roddy, what're you doing-" she said loudly. Roddy winced and put a hand over mouth. He whispered into her ear about the henchrats. She told him to act like the perfect fiance, and he did a perfect job. She was beginning to enjoy his attention. The henchrats walked over to their boat and asked them a few questions.

"Excuse us, but we're looking for a redheaded girl wearing combat boots, a tight green shirt and Union Jack jeans with a brownhaired lad wearing a tattered tux. 'ave you, the beautiful couple seen 'em?" Ladykiller asked.

Rita replied in a perfect British accent, "No, the only people we've see today are each other and that boat rental person. That's it."

"Have you ever in your lives seen someone like this?"

"Yes, gentlemen, about two years ago. She was a friend of mine but she left high school to help her family. I haven't seen the girl since."

"Had she ever talked about being in danger?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Only once, actually. She was talking about how her family was about to starve. That was on the day she left."

"Alright, thank you for your trouble. Let's go, lads. They escaped."

Roddy walked back to Rita and saw them still looking back. He kissed her until they were gone. Rita thought he was kissing her out of reality more than for disguise. She almost didn't pull away again. A kiss which was supposed to be fake turned into something real. That's the way it goes...

Rita's heart was beating faster than she thought was remotely possible when she answered Ladykiller's questions. Roddy looked at her and mentioned her performance.

"I thought you had a thick accent. So thick you couldn't hide it! How did you..." Roddy trailed off. Rita brought him back to reality as she started the boat. She noticed that her shirt showed a small bit of her stomach. Her mum was gonna flip. She hated bellyshirts. Why she didn't know. She had to change soon. Wait a second, she couldn't go home, because the henchrats might follow her.

She made a sharp turn into another waterlane and turned away from Little Soho and went to find somewhere to park. Her "fiance" walked up to her and asked what was wrong.

"Why'd you stop, Ri? Those goons could be following us!"

Rita turned around and went below deck. "I know, but we need to stop to figure out where to go. How about the southern sewers? It's very densely populated there and the rats would give up the chase almost as soon as they started it. We could duck into the huge varitey of shops of we needed to, and I have my other clothes with me down here, just in case. I could fool them and quickly change into my other outfit after I duck into a clothing store. That'll be fun and exciting, don't you think, uh darling?" she had a worried look on her face and she gasped and called him darling. He forced himself to look behind him. He saw Thimblenose Ted and Keith walking along the boardwalk. He looked back at Rita and answered in a very lovey way.

"Yeah, that would be fun. But let's wait until your parents aren't in town, alright, Annah, honey?" Roddy swung her down into a kiss, him holding her in a lying postion and him holding her above the ground. She knew it was for show. She got up and brushed her jeans off. Rita went to the cockpit and started up the boat. They were headed to lower sewertown.

After about an hour, Rita was exausted. She parked the boat to the side of the canal and dropped the anchor carelessly. The boat wobbled as the anchor reached it's limit and it touched the bottom. After the boat stableised, she found some pillows and a couple of blankets. Rita threw Roddy a pillow and blanket as she kept one for herself. As soon as she laid her head on the pillow, she was out like a light.

Roddy readied his bed and asked Rita for some assistance. He asked her again when she didn't answer. He turned around and saw her already konked out, snoring a bit. He chuckled and lifted her up a bit. He slid her blanket out from under her and out it over her slender body. She didn't wake. He looked at her after he out the blanket over her and said,

"You're still Ri to me." he whispered. Roddy got down on one knee and kissed her forehead. He then went back to his own bed. As he laid his head on the pillow, he heard a ticking noise. It was like the timer back in Kensington. He silently walked around Rita to the door. He opened it and saw a timer with something strapped to it. Another bomb! He picked up Rita and woke her up, telling her to leave and get away. She stood on the dock and backed away. She watched as he ran below deck and tried to find a fuse on the bomb. There was no fuse or wire on it. He tried to tear it apart but wasn't strong enough to do it. He stood there, bomb in hand, and was thinking of something to do when it detonated. He was thrown out of the hatch on slammed into the wall. He was unconscious.

Rita hurried him to the hospital, trying to pick him up with her soot covered hands. She was covered in soot now that she had tried to pick Roddy up. She saw someone in a paramedic's uniform. She had a glint of hope in her eyes.

"HELP! MY FRIEND HAS AN INJURY FROM A BOMB! HELP, PLEASE!" she yelled. The person made a movement with her hand and sprinted toward Rita and Roddy.

"What's his name?"

"Roderick St. James!" Rita cried, literally out of breath. There were a few tears in her eyes.

"What happened to him?" the girl replied, taking a pulse and calling in for a stretcher and help.

"A bomb exploded in our boat farther down there. He tried to save me by defusing it." Rita was crying now. Roddy wasn't breathing. She was now sobbing. The paramedic administered a few good rounds of CPR, then artificial respiration. Roddy coughed, opened his eyes, and saw Rita. Rita's eyes were not filled with tears of fear anymore, but joy. Roddy said something funny.

"Just a question, but are you now or have you ever been an angel?" he had a shine of his normal humor in his eyes. Rita began to relax as he regained his right mind and started to sit up. The paramedic checked him over for bumps, cuts or bruises and Roddy was fine.

"He's gonna be fine. Just don't let him drive anything or anything like that. He'll be a bit loopy for a while, bit after a couple hours he should be absolutely normal. Ok?"

Rita nodded gratefully.

'Don't worry, he can't drive to save his skin. I only let him drive if I can't do it, and normally I do it all."

The two helped Roddy up, and he was a bit dazed, but was able to walk without much trouble. Rita couldn't help but hug him out of happiness. She was overjoyed that he was perfectly fine.

"Roddy, you realise that we're gonna need different clothes. In case you haven't noticed, we're absolutely covered in soot and if the henchrats find us, they'll kniw who we are. I know they planted the bomb. They knew we'd get a different boat and that rental shack is the only boat stop in the area. That boat was the only one which wasn't reserved, so they planted the bomb in that boat. I told you you should have savored your newspaper moment."

Roddy was confused, and Rita hadn't realised that she had been talking a thousand words a second. She took a deep breath and repeated her statement, this time slower.

This time Rita made sense. Roddy agreed and they walked into town, covered in soot. Rita chose a tight blue top with fishnet for sleeves and a short skirt with three quarter length leggings to make it modest. She also bought a pair of black flats. She bought some cheap makeup and a small mirror to redo her makeup. She also bought cleaning stuff for her contacts and cleaned them. She got her hair washed and restyled at the stylists' and looked fine, like nothing had ever happened. She and Roddy were once again holding hands, but this time walking to a decent hotel. Rita and roddy got seperate rooms, just next to each others'. Rita walked into her room and collapsed on the huge bed. She once again was out like a light.

They had escaped from the henchrats, but still had to be cautious. They seemed wary about her and Roddy, so she was keeping an eye open for them.

_Oh, who cares? We escaped from them, and we're just recovering from an explosion. We'll be fine. I'm...gonna get...some very much needed...sleep..._


	6. Fire and Separation

Rita awoke twelve hours after she checked into the hotel, and felt like a lead weight. She got up and stretched. She had a few knots in her muscles, and they were gone after she finished stretching. After that she felt normal. Rita realised she was starving, and slipped her flats back on and went out into the hallway. Roddy was in the room across the hall and she knocked.

"Roddy? I'm sorry if I'm waking you up, but if you need me I won't be in my room. I'll be in the dining room getting breakfast, ok?" she called. She strained to hear his faint reply.

"Yeah, sure, whatever..." he called faintly. Rita had to laugh a little. She didn't know he wasn't a morning person because the only time she had woken him up was on the way back to Kensington, and she had woken him up with the horn, which was able to scare the heck out of anyone if they woke to it. She went into her room, grabbed a slip of paper and wrote him a note. It read:

_Roddy, if you get up and you want to get me, I won't be in my room. I'll be in the dining room or window shopping for hair clips to look a bit more girly. I know, that doesn't sound like me, but I need to be a mix of tomboy and girly girl. If I'm not in any of those places, check my room. I might have decided to shower or something. _

Rita folded the note hastily in half and wrote Roddy's name in big, bold capital letters. She grabbed her card key and slipped the note under his door. She put the card in her pocket and went down to the dining room. Wow, it smelled wonderful. She had a cup of coffee in the styrofoam stuff and grabbed a low fat muffin and went out the door to look for accessories. She walked into one store and found bracelets and chokers which matched her oufit style perfectly. She bought a silver wire choker which had fake gems which matched her top. She also found clippy earrings made from items from up top and bought them.

Rita's contacts were bothering her, so she went into a bathroom and took them out. She pulled the box out of her pocket and looked at the description. It said one day use. She threw them away and as she walked out, she saw another rat which had no resemblance of her family, like the rather short snout or the accent when she talked. She also had brown hair like Roddy's, but it was long. Rita saw several other rats, male and female who had green eyes. She had been convinced that her family had the only green eyes in the sewers. She was wrong. Rita let out a silent breath of relief as she walked back toward the hotel. She saw Roddy scanning the streets and ran up to him. He recognised her by her clothing, but not her eyes. He started to talk to her, but when he began to speak he refrained. He walked into a store and Rita grabbed him by the sleeve and whispered, "It's me." He then knew who she was and was happy to see her natural eye color again. The two walked out of the store and back to the optical office. She bought another pair of blue iris contacts and also purchased the proper cleaning product. She went into a bathroom and out them in. These were multiple time use contacts, so she didn't have to worry.

The two walked to the hotel and watched a movie in Rita's room. She had taken her contacts out and was letting them sit in the cleaner. She had also hand washed her Union Jack pants and shirt and was wearing them to relax in.

"Roddy, how are we going to get another boat? I mean, I am finding myself sinking into a distrust of boats now. I think we need a small boat, like a motorboat to go on short trips, and just take a bus or something to go on longer trips. We'll have to be disguised and all that, but to keep alive, it's worth it, isn't it?"

Roddy lifted his head off the arm of the couch and looked at her. She was sitting on the bed, hair down, a little red showing through the dye.

"I guess, but you'll need your hair redyed. Red is peeking through. We don't want to take any chances. I would hate going through something like losing you. If I lost you, I'd never forgive myelf. I don't want to deal with just the loss, but the loss of purpose in my life. You're the reason I stayed. I'm afraid that if I leave, something will happen to you. I know I sound a little overprotective, but I don't want to come anywhere near close to you dying."

Rita's heart melted at his declaration of loyalty and sighed. She smiled affectionately and looked at the tv. It was blank.

"What the...it won't turn back on!" She tried a lamp, and it didn't turn on like it should've. She went to the back of the tv to see if it was plugged in. Sure enough, it was, but something was wrong. She smelled smoke, and ran to her door and felt it. Heat. The henchrats were trying to smoke them out. How did they figure them out? Rita coughed when smoke poured in from under the door. Her room didn't have a fire esape. The two were trapped. Rita's room was on the sixth floor, and if they jumped, they'd be met with a few breaths of water. They'd drown.

Roddy was good at quick thinking, and he put this skill to use. He ran to the window. The building was made of human sized bricks. He instantly had an idea. There was a bit of cement to the right about a foot over, and Roddy altered his plan to fit this. He ran to the bed and tied all the sheets together. He threw it out the window and tied it to the heavy desk. He jumped out to see if it would support his weight, and climbed down. When he was close to the bottom, he tried to swing the sheet rope over to the cement. He jumped when he was over it and landed on his feet. It worked! if the rope supported him, it would support Rita.

Rita was changing into her skirt and leggings and top and flats before she came down. She wanted to be unrogognisable, or at least wanted to look that way. She ran to the rope and jumped out the window in climbed down the rope and swumg it. She landed on her feet and fell into Roddy's arms. His thinking had saved their lives. Suddenly a figure jumped in front of them and yelled, "Hold it right there!" It was Thimblenose Ted with a weapon. He looked embarrassed when he saw it wasn't a redheaded girl and a thouroughly brownhaired young rat who were cowering around the corner. He straightened up and stammered an apoloogy.

"Oh, sorry, um we seem to keep, well running into each other, and um, SORRY!" the henchrat jabbered, then he ran around the corner and went to the front. "It wasn't them!" he yelled.

Rita was cowering. She hated fire. But having been met with Roddy's warm embrace after her terrifying swing and jump, she was fine, mentally. Physically she was going to have to calm down. Roddy kept am arm across her shoulders as they walked to the front, where paramedics and firefighters attended and fought the fire. They both needed to be checked over for smoke inhalation, and they were in a long line. Rita coughed violently and Roddy got a cup of water and handed it to her. She drank the whole thing. She leaned against his chest and closed her eyes. She was so tired. She hated being hunted. She was tired because of the climb and jump and the energy deficiency the adrenaline rush had caused. She found herself nodding off, but was wakened by Roddy moving forward a few steps. She looked up to Roddy, who held her closer. Finally it was their turn, and Rita was checked first for smoke inhalation. She needed some oxygen. So did Roddy. They walked to a boat and the two were given small containers of oxygen and oxygen masks. The two sat on the pavement amd breathed in the oxygen deeply in and out. Rita was dozing off, and Roddy had to shake her shoulder gently to keep her awake. As soon as they had neen breathing the oxygen for twenty five minutes, they returned the containers and went to be rechecked. They were fine. Roddy and Rita walked away from the burning building and walked across the bridge to the shopping complex. Someone grabbed them and pulled them into an ally. Rita began to threaten the person and gasped in horror when she saw who it was. The Toad! He cackled evilly.

"Remember me, rodents? I doubt you do, since rats aren't good rememberers. I will just refresh your memories by taking you back to floodgate control. I'll bet some kind of old memory will arise from the depths of your tiny, miniscule brains." the Toad took them and bound their hands together and led them down the ally, away from the shopping complex. They got to the end of the ally and saw the henchrats opening the door to a boat. Roddy was shoved on board as Rita was put on a different boat.

"Roddy!!" she yelled as their boats went seperate ways.

"Rita!!" Roddy called in response. The last two calls were panicked and lonely sounding, and Rita burst into bitter tears as she began to wonder what to do. Roddy was her light, a breath of fresh air when she couldn't breathe, and now she might never see him again. She didn't want to face the cold hard truth. If the Toad decided to ice her, she was as good as gone. She couldn't escape. She hung her head and wished Roddy were there to hold her. She had noone to console her.

Roddy was not thinking straight. His partner, the love of his life, his purpose in life, might be hidden from him forever. He was led to a cell and was thrown in. There was a wood cot and a piece of fabric for a pillow and a piece of a napkin for a blanket. There was an old, rickety chair and a table in the same condition. He felt so alone. He wanted the toad dead for separating him and Rita. He heard a piece of paper crackle and reached into his pocket. It was the note she had written to him earlier in the day. This was all he had to remember Rita by. He held it close to his chest and cried softly.

Rita was thrown into a crude cell, made with metal and cement. She had a slip of paper in her pocket and it was a picture of Roddy and a love note he had written to her. She read it over and over, taking it all in. She sobbed at the words, "Rita, know that I love you, and true love can do anything it needs to.". if that was true, true love could bring both of them back together. She sobbed uncontrollably. Roddy. The name rolled over and over in her head. Roddy.


	7. Iced!

Roddy had fallen asleep in the corner of his cell, having been sobbing about not seeing Rita again. He was devestated that the Toad separated them. He wanted the big fat slimy airbag dead. If noone else was gonna do anything about it, he would.

Rita was sobbing without consolation, none, in any way shape of form. She already missed Roddy, and she knew deep in her heart that he missed her too.

"Oh, come on, Rita. Straighten up! This birdcage can't be that hard to bust out of. I can probably slip through the bars." She went to the bars and slid through. She was really glad she was as thin as she was. She quietly slunk down the corridor, which stank of something she didn't want to know about, and found a cell with someone in it. She had a spark of hope in her heart. Maybe it was Roddy! She was disgusted when she got there. That DEFINITELY wasn't Roddy. it was some old, decomposing corpse. She almost threw up when she saw it, and ran farther down the dark musty corridor. After a few minutes, she was ready to give up. She heard a noise, like someone talking under their breath. If she knew Roddy, he did it the most. She tiptoed to the cell block and peeked around the corner. There was a figure in a white, oilstained shirt with an angry expression. She thought it was someone else when she saw the look on the figure's face, because Roddy was almost never mad. But sure enough, it was Roddy. He was saying something under his breath, angrily. She whispered his name and he turned. Roddy saw Rita and stood up. Rita slunk around the corner and found the key. She silently removed it from the keyring and unlocked his door. He stepped out and Rita greeted him with a warm embrace. She tried not to cry, but she had to. There weren't tears of sadness, happiness or anything inbetween. These were tears of fear, and the bravest rat in Piccadilly was shedding them. She was crying fearfully because she knew the Toad would find them and ice them if they didn't leave Picadilly. Not to mention the fact of being separated forever.

Roddy pushed her away and looked into her beautiful green eyes. They had an innocent look behind them, and Roddy couldn't help but think that she'd make the perfect housepet if she could look like this all the time. He kissed her tenderly, and pulled away to put her head on his chest. Roddy gently stroked Rita's long red hair and whispered reassurance into her ear. She pulled away completely and straightened up.

"Roddy, we have to leave. My dad has a boat we can borrow, and he and I are the only ones who know about it. I haven't seen it, but I know where he keeps it. He'll tell us the combination and, voila, we have a boat to go up top with."

Roddy wasn't sure she was thinking straight when she made this statement. She was standing in her normal posture, hands crossed across her chest, and putting her weight on one leg while the other was bent slightly. She was serious, but trembling slightly. She shook her head and fell into his arms again. The two stood there, in a dark, cold corridor and held each other for a few minutes. Rita was still exausted, but she couldn't doze now. She pulled away and took Roddy's hand and led him down the corridor.

Rita gently pulled Roddy behind her as they progressed through the huge dungeon. She wondered if the thing ever came to an end. She saw a wall, and scanned it for some way out, it there was a tunnel or something. She let go of Roddy's hand and jogged to the wall and ran her hands over the smooth surface. She felt a bump and followed it. It was a square, and she found somewhere to tug on it.

She tried to pull it out but couldn't.

"Roddy, umph, help me! Ugh!" she whispered as she pulled. Roddy went over to the wall and found his grip on it. The two pulled with all their strength and finally it gave and came out. A cloud of dust exploded from the hole, and there was a short tunnel. Rita went in first, and Roddy followed. Rita climbed out the other end and yelped. She was standing on the edge of the floodgate control station.

"Well, that was anticlimatic. I thought we'd be out and homefree." Rita gasped as the looked for a way down. she saw a series of nails leading down and jumped onto one, then another. Then another. Rita hopped nails until she reached to bottom. She looked back up and saw Roddy trying to get down. Eventually he got down. Rita spoke up.

"Wait a second. We need to figure out how to get rid of the Toad permanantly. I have an idea! Roddy, c'mon." she exclaimed.

Roddy stammered. "Wait, um where are we going?"

Rita called over her shoulder. "We're gonna get the Toad iced. He tried to do it to us, and what goes around comes around, you know!" Rita quickened her pace and ran faster. Roddy was sprinting to try to keep up with Rita. She seemed to be running as fast as she was effortlessly. As soon as the back entrance came into her view, she slowed down. Roddy didn't know how she did it, but she went totally silent in a matter of seconds. Rita tiptoed up to the door and opened it. She checked inside. No henchrats. She motioned for Roddy to follow her. He did and went inside after her. She scanned the hallway in front of her and the ones branching off. She thought she saw movement to the right of her, but there was nothing.

Roddy thought he heard something behind him and turned. He gasped but nothing was audible because a cloth had been fastened across his mouth. He was led away silently as he kicked and strained to be released. Roddy finally wrenched a hand away from the person-or thing-which was dragging him away from Rita and pulled the cloth away from his mouth. He yelled.

"Rita!" he hollered.

Rita heard Roddy's yell and went tot he hallway where it came from. She saw him struggling to get free and ran up and prepared to kick the person holding Roddy captive, but instead was cut off as a door was slammed in her face. She tried to kick it down, tried to open it in a civilised manner, but it was steel and couldn't be opened. She saw a piece of wood and a few pieces of rope and picked them up. After Rita picked them up, she ran to the main hallway and took the scenic route to the ice room.

Roddy strained against his captor's strong grip. Roddy was repeatedly kicking the thing but to no end, the kicking didn't phase the person or thing a bit. He gasped in fear when he saw the fridge he had been in before. The Toad was opening it and stepping in to the valve. Roddy kicked harder and the person lt go. Roddy ran past the toad and the henchrats in one burst of adrenaline. He shot into a hallway and into a room with comfortable looking chairs and a fireplace with shelves with books piled on them. The Toad's room. This was where he had first met the Toad. Roddy continued running and eventually saw a shadow running toward him. He was scared for a moment but kept going. If this was a henchrat, the rat was gonna meet a new side of Roddy...

Rita saw a figure progressing in her direction and prepared herself for impact into the person's jaw. She saw who it was and unclenched her fist.

"Roddy! I thought they had iced you!" Rita said as she hugged him briefly. Roddy hugged her back and pulled away. Rita heard yells and orders being barked as she hugged Roddy. She was getting mad now. She was gonna ice the Toad and make sure the slimy bugger was securely frozen. Rita went around the corner, Roddy following her. Rita picked up a piece of metal and rope pieces and handed them to Roddy. She told him the plan and he was battlehearted almost instantly. He armed himself with the piece of metal, rope, a small pipe, and a longer piece of rope. He held the two weapons securely in hand and Rita led them down the hall to face off the henchrats, then the toad. The henchrats would be iced first, just to rub Toad's nose in it. Rita saw the rats and ran toward them, and was tying them together already. She watched as Roddy snuck up behind the toad and tied him hands together and led him into the icing room. Rita shoved the henchrats all except for Whitey, Spike and Keith and froze the rest. The others would be interrogated and put in jail. Rita shoved the Toad in under the glass as it decended. Roddy tightened the washer and redied himself for the grand finale. Apparently Roddy hadn't tied the knots tight enough. The Toad had untied the knots behind him and was unscrewing the washer like Rita did. The Toad jumped out and pulled Roddy in. Roddy was trapped. He deprately pounded on the glass, but Roddy remembered that he was in a fridge, and the only person who could hear the quiet thumping was Toad, who was too busy cackling to notice. Roddy crouched in the corner of the glass and hugged his legs to preserve his body heat. He thought of Rita was the liquid nitrogen froze around his thin body.

Rita was feeling wonderful and proud of herself until the fridge opened. She wanted to see Toad frozen but instead, Roddy was the one in the nitrogen. She screamed, and Roddy's eyes blinked in the nitrogen. She punched the Toad hard in the face and knocked him out. After the Toad was sprawled out on the floor, she picked up a metal pipe and gave a hit which could shatter the Andes Mountains. Roddy took a deep breath and went unconscious. Rita grabbed a blanket and tucked it around his freezing body. Rita kissed his forehead and laid her head on his chest momentarily, but picked up her head when Toad moved. She grabbed a stronger piece of rope and tied his hands behind his back and feet. Rita tied his hands and feet together and dragged his fat body to the icer. She saw Roddy sit up and pull the blanket closer to his shivering body and watched the action. Rita smiled at him and told him to press the ice button when she said to. The glass descended for the last time as Rita got out of the glass. She climbed the ladder to get to the top and screwed the washer tight. She yelled, "NOW!" and the Toad was frozen in his own concoction.

Rita sighed a deep sigh as she climbed back down the ladder. She had frozen the Toad. She chisled a hole for him to breathe through and he tried to speak. Rita threatened to plug the hole unless he decided to shut up. Nevertheless, he quieted down. Rita had chisled a bunch of holes for the frozen henchrats to breathe through and they shut their mouths when Rita threatened their leader. Roddy walked over to Rita and put an arm around her shoulders. She gave in and rested her head on Roddy's shoulder. After a few seconds, she turned and hugged him back. The devious Toad was rolling his eyes, as were the henchrats. Rita ignored their silent scoffing. All that mattered now was that Roddy was alive. He was here. With her. Now. She pulled away and her voice cracked as she spoke.

"I'm gonna call Colin. They're gonna need something bigger than a patty wagon to haul these hideous messes to jail. Then they have to melt them." Rita left to find a phone. The Toad told Roddy to come closer to him and Roddy did so, since the Toad couldn't jump out and attack him.

"Roderick, you know I can escape under any circumstance. I suggest you watch your back while you think I'm in jail. Got it? I will get you back. I swear on Prince Charles' life that I'll get you back." Roddy was startled by the amphibian's words, but had an easy comeback.

"Alright, I'll make doubly sure they keep you frozen then. You can't move quite that easily in frozen liquid nitrogen, now can you?" With this Roddy walked away, in the direction of the icer control panel and opened the door again. He jumped down and shoved the Toad inside the icer and pushed the frozen henchrats in as well. Whitey, Spike and Keith were silently standing in a well lit corner, and they dared not move. Rita could be back any second.

Rita called and summoned the police and ran back to the icer room. She noticed the blocks of ice were missing and asked Roddy where they were.

"Roddy, where are the henchrats and Toad?"

"In the icer.''

Good idea. We don't want them melting and escaping."

Roddy noticed for the first time in three days how pretty Rita was. She was in her skirt, leggings, fishnet top and flats still, but it was her hair that made him notice her true beauty. She looked good with strawberry blond hair.

In a few minutes, the ice blocks were being loaded into boats and taken to the station. Rita looked at Roddy, and the two's eyes locked(for the last time, I hope. I have THEIR EYES LOCKED like a billion times in my stories!), and Rita fell into Roddy's arms and for the last time in this fic, they kissed. Thier lived continued like noting had ever happened.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.:THE END:.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, hope ya'll liked it. I sure enjoyed typing it. Even though my fingers hurt like heck. :-)


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